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This Indian-Origin Harvard Student Took Mark Zuckerberg To Court For ‘Stealing’ His Facebook Idea
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Divya Narendra and the Winklevoss twins accused Mark Zuckerberg of idea theft over HarvardConnection, leading to a $65 million settlement and inspiring ‘The Social Network’ film
Facebook grew at breakneck pace, spreading from Harvard to universities across the United States and then to the wider world.
Long before Facebook became a global habit, a small group of Harvard students believed they had spotted a gap in the internet. Among them was Divya Narendra, a New York-born Indian-origin student who later accused Mark Zuckerberg, now the face of the world’s biggest social network, of running away with their idea.
What followed was one of the most closely-watched legal tussles in the history of the tech industry.
In the early 2000s, when broadband internet was still a novelty and students largely relied on email, Narendra and his friends, the twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, began work on a project called HarvardConnection (later renamed ConnectU). The idea was simple yet radical for its time; a closed online network where Harvard students could create profiles, discover classmates and build social connections.
Narendra, the son of doctor parents and a standout student through school, had secured admission into Harvard after studying at some of New York’s top institutions. At Harvard, the trio quickly bonded, and as the project took shape, they began looking for a gifted programmer to bring the platform to life.
According to court filings later made public, the group approached Mark Zuckerberg, then an undergraduate known on campus for his coding skills. Emails exchanged between the parties, many of which later surfaced in legal documents, showed detailed discussions about the proposed network, its scope and its expansion beyond Harvard.
Narendra and the twins believed Zuckerberg would help write the code. Instead, they alleged, communication slowed, replies tapered off, and on February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched ‘TheFacebook’, a site that bore striking similarities to their concept.
News of the launch spread rapidly across the campus. Shocked by what they believed was a case of idea theft, the trio complained to Harvard authorities and eventually took the matter to court.
A Legal Battle That Gripped The Tech World
The dispute ran from 2004 to 2008, with Narendra and the Winklevoss brothers accusing Zuckerberg of breaching an oral agreement and misappropriating their concept. Facebook, meanwhile, grew at breakneck pace, spreading from Harvard to universities across the United States and then to the wider world.
In 2008, the parties reached an out-of-court settlement reportedly valued at $65 million, a mix of cash and Facebook stock. Although Zuckerberg did not admit wrongdoing, the settlement was widely seen as acknowledgement that the complainants had a legitimate case.
The legal clash later formed a key plotline in the Oscar-winning Hollywood film ‘The Social Network’, where Narendra’s character featured prominently. He has since said that while the film dramatised events, it helped spotlight the Indian-origin role in Facebook’s origin story.
Life After Facebook, And Another Startup Story
Far from being defined by the controversy, Divya Narendra chose to move forward. He completed advanced degrees in finance and law before launching SumZero in 2008, a professional network for serious investors and analysts to share research and insights.
Unlike Facebook, SumZero caters to a niche audience of finance professionals. Today, the platform counts thousands of vetted members and is valued in the millions, making Narendra a significant name in the investment-tech space.
The Facebook episode continues to be debated in Silicon Valley circles as a cautionary tale about intellectual ownership, trust and the fine print of informal agreements in the startup world.
December 30, 2025, 17:32 IST
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